To set this in some national context, here is the commentary in the latest Department for Transport (DfT) report (2012 report, page 22).

Pedal cycle KSI casualties have risen steadily since 2004 as have cycling traffic levels.
In 2012 the number was 32 per cent higher than the 2005-09 average; over the same
period pedal cycle traffic increased by 12 per cent

This is clearly a challenge to the belief that many have that there is a safety in numbers effect for cycling. What is also interesting is the distribution of casualties. As DfT have it:

The three vulnerable road user groups (pedestrians, pedal cyclists and motorcyclists) between them account for almost 50 per cent of all deaths and 60 per cent of all seriously injured casualties.

Proportion of reported casualties by road user type and severity, adjusted for distancetravelled per year, Great Britain: 2012 (page 23 of 2012 report)

In the wake of the Mayor’s Road Task Force report, which had some focus on the A4 corridor, Hammersmith and Fulham council have appointed a champion, created a webpage for comments, organised a summit and created some groups to discuss the flyover of which we are involved in one. The plan is to come up with a proposal before the local elections in 2014 to pass to TfL to develop the fuller plan.

Meanwhile, the Hammersmith Flyover sits being repaired at great expense by TfL, and they tell the construction press it will be “open for traffic for decades to come” after a combined repair cost of around £70m

To find out what that actually means locally we thought we should examine the figures with a purely Hammersmith and Fulham focus. The Office of National Statistics provide a map tool to compare 2001 and 2011 census data. For the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham this provides the following table for comparing journeys to work. Note that such commuting journeys are typically the highest modal share for cycling, rather than utility (shopping, visiting your relatives) and leisure (heading for Richmond Park on a sunny afternoon). The figure for cycling as a share of all trips is typically around 2-3%.

Journey to Work, 2011 Local Authority Name: Hammersmith and Fulham

2001

2011

Work mainly at or from home (%)

8.88

10.75

Underground, metro, light rail, tram (%)

37.63

37.79

Train (%)

3.67

4.26

Bus, minibus or coach (%)

10.71

13.39

Taxi (%)

0.51

0.37

Motorcycle, scooter or moped (%)

2.2

2.06

Driving a car or van (%)

17.97

11.07

Passenger in a car or van (%)

1.03

0.68

Vehicle Occupancy Rate

1.06

1.06

Bicycle (%)

4.75

7.12

On foot (%)

12.13

11.99

Other method of travel to work (%)

0.52

0.53

The 2011 data has been provided at a ward level, which gives us this thrilling league table, and the knowledge that as a whole, Hammersmith and Fulham has 7,088 (approximately) resident cycle commuters in a population of 145,552.

Ward

Bicycle

%

Palace Riverside

357

9.22%

Askew

656

8.44%

Munster

548

8.33%

Ravenscourt Park

448

7.83%

Fulham Reach

497

7.70%

Fulham Broadway

469

7.60%

Shepherd’s Bush Green

521

7.55%

Sands End

489

7.32%

Addison

500

7.15%

Hammersmith Broadway

444

7.06%

Town

452

6.80%

Parsons Green and Walham

367

6.21%

Wormholt and White City

346

5.96%

Avonmore and Brook Green

400

5.90%

North End

407

5.90%

College Park and Old Oak

187

4.51%

It is of course also valuable to look at this data over a longer period and examine the change in behaviour.

Year

Working Population

Change

Cycling to work %

Change

Cyclists

Change

1991

64,760

3.80%

2,461

2001

83,023

28%

4.75%

25%

3,943

60%

2011

99,618

20%

7.12%

50%

7,088

80%

The working population of Hammersmith and Fulham has gone up strongly over the past two censuses. The proportion of cyclists in the working population has grown at 25% in 1991-2001 and then 50% in 2001-2011. Meanwhile the absolute number of cyclists has grown by 80% from just under 2,500 to just under 4,000 in 1991-2001 and then to over 7,000 in 2001-2011.

Strong that growth may sound, Hammersmith and Fulham actually missed the targets that had been set nationally, these targets were to double 1996 levels of cycling by 2002, and to double them by 2012. Amusingly after the 2002 target was missed the 2012 target was to increase on 1996 to triple or quadruple! It’s also worth noting that a previous vision for cycling, the London Cycle Network (LCN) envisaged a 10% modal share by around 2012 as well. The Mayor’s Cycling Vision more sanely proposes a doubling of cycling, again over ten years.

That would take us to 14,000 commuting cyclists (assuming the growth is even in commuting, and that Hammersmith evenly with London) making a 14% share of journeys, assuming the population is stable. However, with opportunity areas and many housing developments in the borough the absolute capacity of cyclists necessary to plan for may be far higher. What matters, is that as the earlier tables showed a 14% share of commuting journeys for cycling would almost certainly make it the second most popular mode of travel to work after the tube, and more popular than buses.

On the weekend of 9/10 August 2013, the revamped, rescheduled and renamed annual festival of cycling supported by TfL RideLondon took place. The media focus was largely on the Sunday which saw Boris Johnson and around 16,000 others take part in a marathon style challenge to ride 100 miles in Surrey and back (via Hammersmith and Fulham over the flyover) and then a professional race later in the day.

We meanwhile, had a strong involvement in the Saturday even, a ‘freecycle’ enabling 50,000 people including many families with members young and old alike to cycle in safety and pleasure on closed roads around St James’s Park, along the embankment up to Tower Hill and back. 70 fellow riders accompanied us from out start in Brook Green.

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We are the local branch of the London Cycle Campaign (LCC) for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. We also cover Shepherd's Bush but that's not part of the name of our borough, a fuller guide to where we cover is here.